The next morning, I woke up to news that a small band of “Tibetan separatists” had attempted to sabotage the Olympic Torch Relay in Paris. Fortunately, the authorities responded quickly and the relay continued. The actions of the separatists were swiftly condemned by the international community, and everyone involved will be brought to justice.

I knew something horrible must have happened if CCTV had a report like that, so I can’t say I was surprised to find this, this, and these, that afternoon.

CCTV audiences will not likely be informed that activists in San Francisco prepared for the arrival of the torch by scaling the Golden Gate Bridge to hang a banner that read “Free Tibet 08”, or that the local government there assembled a massive security force prior to the relay and readied itself to clash with demonstrators as the torch and its message of peace and brotherhood made its only stop in North America.

And they will not likely hear that Mayor Gavin Newsom was so fearful of rioting that he secretly changed the relay route to allow the torch to be smuggled through San Francisco before anyone found out what was going on. Newsom told Reuters the decision to hide the torch from the public and get it the hell out of town as quickly as possible was made in the interest of public safety.

In its own way, San Francisco may have become the low point in the increasingly absurd and ugly saga of the Beijing Torch Relay. After two rounds of spirited violence and general upheaval in Europe, the Olympic Torch was rushed through San Francisco like an escaping prisoner. The final stop on the torch’s brief American visit was meant to be a grand closing ceremony by the water. Instead, the AP reports, the “ceremony” was moved to the international airport, where the torch was perhaps viewed by a team of baggage-handlers before it was rushed onto a waiting airplane.